Audi Type SS

The Audi Type SS was a large eight-cylinder sedan that Audi introduced in 1929 in succession to the Type R. It is also called the Audi Zwickau. Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen, who had bought Audi-Werke in 1928, had shipped the plant of the bankrupt American Rickenbacker business home to Germany to build large, relatively inexpensive US-style Rasmussen engines for other German makers. No orders came, so he used them in models of his own, of which this was one. The 5,130 cc straight-eight developed 100 PS at 3,000 rpm through a four-speed transmission to the rear wheels, for a claimed top speed of 110 km/h, with hydraulic brakes on all four wheels. About 400 were produced between 1929 and 1932.